Astral Searcher
Astral Searcher Medium Outsider (Extraplanar, Incorporeal) HD: 2d8 (9 hp) Init: +0 Speed: Fly 30 ft (perfect) (6 squares) AC: 15 (+5 deflection), touch 15, flat-footed 15 Base Attack/Grapple: +2/--- Attack: Incorporeal touch +3 melee (1d6) Full Attack: Incorporeal touch +3 melee (1d6) Space/Reach: 5 ft /5 ft Special Attacks: Possession, psyche touch Special Qualities: Incorporeal traits, spell resistance 21 Saves: Fort +3 Ref +3 Will +5 Abilities: Str --- Dex 11 Con 11 Int --- Wis 14 Cha 20 Skills: None Feats: Weapon Focus (Touch) (B) Environment: Astral Plane Organization: Solitary or swarm (4-24) Challenge Rating: 3 Treasure: None Alignment: Always neutral Advancement: 3-6 HD (Medium-size) Level Adjustment: --- A phantasmal, gaseous shape hovers before you, bits of astral energy dancing and emanating from its body. You see no clear signs of eyes or a face, but nevertheless it seems to know just where you are. Humanoid tragedy and dimensional travel sometimes have a bizarre effect on extraplanar energies that swirl and tumble through the dimensions of the multiverse. One of the stranger results of the disruption of planar energy is the astral searcher. Thought to be the result of great anguish or combat in the Astral Plane, an astral searcher is a mindless humanoid-shaped cloud of Astral energy that has somehow taken on a semblance of life. Those who create astral searchers do so unintentionally, and are usually unaware that they have done so. The motives and movements of an astral searcher are pure instinct — it has no capacity for rational thought and is guided only by the sole driving need to possess a material body. No one is quite sure why astral searchers are so driven take hold of humanoid forms, but the most sensible suggestion is that they somehow “know” that they were generated by humanoid thought and are thus acting on some primal envy of their unwitting creators. Like moths to a flame, these disconnected masses of emotion are drawn to points in the Astral Plane that might be weak enough to tear and allow them access to the Material Plane, and cluster there waiting for an opportunity. Any rift between the Astral and Material plane allows egress to the astral searchers gathering there, and they eagerly await such an occurrence. Astral travel has a very slight chance of causing a rift to remain open just long enough for astral searchers to pass through. COMBAT Astral searchers have no desire in life but to attach themselves to a living humanoid body. When a suitable host approaches, the searchers will swarm and attack. If a searcher is able to find its way to the Material plane or some other plane other than the Astral, it will make every effort to get there and search for a body. An astral searcher flails at its opponent with its arm-like tendrils of Astral energy. If reduced to 0 hit points, the creature’s will to exist is finally broken and it dissipates into a cloud of harmless vapor. An astral searcher in possession of a body has its own will, and behaves as an individual, based on its new alignment and personality. Psyche Touch (Su): The touch of an astral searcher reaches to the very core of its opponent’s existence. This damage is more mental than physical, however, and the attack only deals 1d6 points of subdual damage. Travelers from the Material plane on the Astral plane are immune to this attack, their silver cord acting as a sort of shield, though visitors from other planes who lack a silver cord are subject to this effect. If on the material plane, the astral searcher can affect any being with this attack. An opponent reduced to 0 hit points or less by the touch of an astral searcher falls into a deep coma. If left alone, the victim will heal from the damage and awaken upon reaching 1 hit point. Possession (Su): As a full round action, an astral searcher can possess a humanoid body that has been reduced to 0 hit points or less by the psyche touch attack. If an astral searcher is able to possess a body, the psyche of that creature is destroyed and its mind dissipates into nothingness. An astral searcher in possession of a body gains all the physical ability scores and Intelligence of the opponent’s body, and the body is restored to its full hit points. Possessing a humanoid body and gaining intelligence has a strange effect on the otherwise mindless astral searcher; in the moment of possession, it immediately gains a new personality and an alignment. The personality of the astral searcher is up to the discretion of the DM and little or nothing remains of the victim’s personality, but the alignment must be randomly determined. The possessing searcher’s mind is filled with the original emotion that caused it to come into being. If the possessed body is of a class that has alignment restrictions and its alignment changes, it suffers the appropriate penalty ascribed to that class for the alignment change. Skills and feats, languages, and class levels and abilities are temporarily lost at the moment of possession, but each will be regained in 1d6 hours. The astral searcher permanently loses the victim’s memories and the ability to gain levels. Certain spells such as banishment can force an astral searcher out of a possessed body, but since the original psyche of the body has been destroyed it cannot be restored by any means short of a wish spell. The body is simply a soulless shell that is vulnerable to attack by other astral searchers or any entity capable of possessing a living form (such as ghosts and certain other outsiders). If the astral searcher is cast out of the body, it loses all the benefits of the possession, and becomes mindless again. If the body is killed while an astral searcher possesses it, the searcher is destroyed also. 1981 Wizards of the Coast, Inc. Originally found in first edition Fiend Folio (1981, Tom Moldvay), and the Planescape Campaign Setting (1994). Category:Outsiders